America

Johannes van Keulen II belonged to the third generation of the Van Keulen publishing house, In de Gekroonde Lootsman, one of Amsterdam’s principal maritime publishers.

The firm had been founded by Johannes van Keulen I in 1678 and continued through later generations of the family, issuing sea charts, pilot books, and maritime atlases for practical navigation.

This title page was intended for vol. 4 of De nieuwe groote lichtende Zee-fakkel, covering navigation in North America and the Caribbean.

This example is dated 1728 and dedicated to Johannes van Keulen II, the plate was probably first produced for the 1684 issue of the volume under Johannes van Keulen I, making this an altered or reissued state of an earlier design.

The title page presents America through allegory, navigation, and maritime commerce.

America is personified as a seated woman wearing a feathered headdress and shaded by a parasol, while surrounding figures offer goods associated with transatlantic trade.

A torch-bearing figure continues the central visual metaphor of the Zee-Fakkel: the pilot book as a light or guide for mariners.

Maritime imagery, trade goods, and classical figures together frame America as a region approached through coastal navigation, oceanic passage, and commercial exchange.

The composition is signed by Jan Luyken as designer and etcher.

Helmink notes that although this example is dated 1728, the plate was almost certainly first produced in 1684 for the first issue of Zee-fakkel, part IV, under Johannes van Keulen I.

The later date and dedication therefore indicate a reissued or altered state of an earlier plate rather than a newly engraved title page.

This title page is closely connected with the other Van Keulen title pages in the collection (144, 145, 204, and 288).

Together, they show how the firm adapted a shared allegorical language to different publications and regions, using light, mythological figures, personifications, and maritime symbols to frame practical navigational works.